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1. Guest blog on niche related high PR/PA/DA domains. 2; Get ultra high Authoritative links. (yahoo, usnews, huffingtonpost sites) 3. Press release to get authoritative links 4. Top paid directories such as Yahoo. Best bet is start with #2 and work your way to #1 then #3 then #4. Looking at their content, authority and such, honestly its not that hard to rank those keywords to the top though #2 is difficult to say. Top 5 is definitely do-able in a few months.

I'd say the blogs probably aren't doing anything for you algorithmically and I'm guessing they're not what was sending you the non-repeat traffic.  If you're paying for sitewides that are not nofollowed, you should think seriously about stopping that.  Pay for links on other sites as much as you like but make sure they're nofollowed.

Be sure you're targeting the person/writer and not the company.

The great guru Seth Godin wrote about this on Saturday: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/11/tenacity-is-not-the-same-as-persistence.html Seth wrote: "Persistence is doing something again and again until it works. It sounds like 'pestering' for a reason. "Tenacity is using new data to make new decisions to find new pathways to find new ways to achieve a goal when the old ways didn't work. "Telemarketers are persistent, Nike is tenacious." My $0.02 is that if someone doesn't respond to the first 3-4 phone calls, it's unlikely that you're going to "wear them down" by trying to be persistent.  You're probably just bugging them. Instead, try to find a new way to get their attention and link to your site. If it's a really valuable note, send a package with cookies, and a message tying in your pitch.  Send flowers.  Do something out of the box to get through the clutter... Hope this helps... -- Jeff

Hi, it's possible. What do you mean by "It just happens to be the time when we removed a bunch of paid links"? When were the links removed in relation to the traffic drop? I would take a deeper look into which pages caused the traffic drop. Look at the 30 day period before the drop and compare it to the 30 day period after the drop. Where is the majority of the traffic loss coming from? Which keywords? Penguin tends to impact the homepage or the specific keywords you are over optimizing. In regards to paid links, Google has a very hard time detecting these unless you are being blatant about them, and you will typically receive a notice in GWT if you receive a penalty for it. Check to see if there are any manual penalties on your site in GWT. If not, chances are Google has not discovered that the links are paid (yet). The main thing to watch out for with Penguin is low quality links (relative to your high quality links) and the anchor text of your links. With the latest updates, you want to keep your keyword anchor text below 25-30% of your total links. So if your ratio is higher than that, try to get that changed. And focus on building more links, because 70 is not a lot. The stronger your backlink profile is, the more resilient it is to spammy links.

Bob, My first question would be what are you trying to get +1's for? Is it for your domain, specific link or something else? We wanted to have more +1's for our site, so we added a +1 button on our homepage so people could +1 it on the fly. It worked out and we now have 41 +1's more than before. Also, what we have found is that an incentive doesn't always work. It's a bell-shape-curve and after a while it will actually have a negative affect. I agree with Peter, sometimes all you need is great content but what I do strongly believe in is reminding people to do it. You could be on Yelp but if you don't tell people you are there and the fact that you appreciate their feedback, you won't get as many reviews. Same thing with +1's. Let people know you would appreciate the love, if they enjoy reading your content and they can decide if they want to +1 your link or not. If it is good content, it will work every time. Add that button to the target, it works like a charm. If people see it, they will remember to do it. I hope this helps. Best, Ashkan Sobhe

Actually if you feel some of the links you have created in the past could be problematic in the future and you know they are the type of links that have caused other sites a problem then I would remove them. Penguin 2.1 has affected Businesses who have used bad link practices a long time ago. I would say it is better to be safe than sorry and fix it now before you do get hit. It would be harder getting out of an Algorithmic penalty. That is my opinion anyway

Google is pretty clever, it also going to no doubt pick up if they are friends and family compared to employes etc. I would be careful with it and weigh the risk to reward, I can't say they would devalue them as its hardly on a huge scale However would it be relevant as that's what Google always like to know. You can always work on making you profile (presuming you have a link) more authoritative by getting more people in your "circles". Good luck.

So you think, you are a seo specialist? Really!

I don't have an example off the top of my head but what I will say is that the way software sites do comparisons of packages is great like avg or something like that. 3 columns, Gold, Silver, Bronze Then down the left a list of all services you offer and then under each column a tick if it is included in that package. Does that make sense? It gives people a very clear understanding in one page what the differences are, rather than having to scroll up and down or flick between pages and scanning sentences. It will likely help people choose a higher package and spend more money with you. A bit like McDonalds asking if you would like fries with that for the small additional cost of X

You are right keywords and content coverage helps for ranking in Google SEO. I did experienced with my keyword of Life Coach and its work.

Wow, I can say at the very least that your process shows perseverance! The advice that follows comes from a background in sales and marketing, less so in expert link-building. Your appeal to your target doesn't seem to offer a solution to a problem. You are stating that your product is 'useful,' 'beneficial,' and 'important'. Don't tell them. Show them. Does your article 'explain how to harness the wind so your community has water to drink'? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba) Maybe your humanitarian market is not concerned about the lack of drinking water in African villages, but they do have a unique concern, and you need to connect with it. Keep in mind, more so than a target market of accountants or phlebotomists, humanitarians are moved by emotions. They are who they are and do what they do because they care. Choose your message accordingly. If I can say one last thing...less is more. Go get 'em tiger;)

Awesome advice from both of you. Thanks!

I helped a guy with an auto glass website in a city not far from Scranton. Almost immediately after the site went up they were getting most of their business from the website.  The SEO was easy because the competitors were few and naive.

Google cares about duplicate content not duplicate CSS

And the legend grows.......

Theres a few other things you should take into consideration with Twitter. A retweet from someone from little to no followers is kinda useless. It also makes me wonder if they are a spam bot. It won't nessecarly generate any good will. I have a couple of Twitter accounts. 1 business. I use the business account to provide product updates, downtime notifications etc 2. personal. My personal account is based around music and a personal blog/brand I have built over many years in a very small niche. Through this I have achieved a decent amount of followers that I interact with reguarly. I have also been able to convert a good portion of followers. My followers have also recommend my services to their followers knowing that I offer the service their contact is looking for. Even when they don't use my services. It makes them look like an authority/knowledgable person with contacts. I saw a tweet that made sense. It was something like "facebook is for friends that you hate, twitter is for people you don't know but love". This is true. My twitter feed is not disimilar to an active forum. My best advice is: Create a personal account, build followers in your niche by interacting with them (even if at first they don't respond) Be real. Sounds cliche but, twitter is about interaction, communicating and sharing thoughts with similar minded people... And you better believe they will all be similar minded. During recent elections here in Australia, it seemed everyone was giving their 2 cents about how Labour should win. If the election was based off my feed, they would have won. They didn't and we now have a new Prime Minister. Be careful with the links you provide. Especially early on while people are getting to know you. If you over do it, an unfollow is only a click away. In all honesty, if you are new to Twitter and want to promote your company, I would use their paid ads. Why ? Because you can define the audience you are trying to attract. At first I detested twitter ads, but since they';ve fine tuned it, I do often click a link or at least favourite it so I can come back and look at it later. In saying that, make sure your site is responsive. Damn, I hate clicking a twitter link to find it's not working on my browser. Smartcompany.com.au were guilty of this and it annoyed the shit out of me as they have really interesting headers. i.e. I'd click through and would get page not found. Don't tweet people/companies with a link to your site. If it's a new account and you do this reguarly you're looking at a ban. Users hate this. Trying to get followers by favouriting their tweets in the hope of a followback, is also a no no. I think AJ Ghergich @seo has found a really good balance for Twitter. He posts a lot of great links to other people sites, many sites I haven't seen before and he interacts with his followers. @randfish is also Ok. Though he doesn't interact unless you're a seo celebrity or similar. I guess the same rings true for twitter as it does for SEO. Look for authorities who are active and interesting. Hope that helps

Awesome Dr. Meyers. You nailed my question. Thanks everyone for your discussion. I get the impression that an article with a bunch of outgoing link is preferred to just a list, but either way it sounds like it won't hurt my site. Thanks again everyone.

It also helps to know the Facebook social audience that you are reaching out two, some appreciate much engagement and feedback others like it in moderation. But generally if you don't participate your doing social wrong.

True, and they don't have a blog! I may be able to convince them to start one. Question: How do organize new articles in a 2013 manner when they've already got an article section with 30 long articles? Here's what I'm talking about: http://www.nlpca.com/DCweb/nlparticles.html